Family Law/Estate Planning

Where the former wife of a Chapter 7 debtor has filed a claim against his bankruptcy estate, her claim constitutes a domestic support obligation entitled to priority. “… In the early 1990s, the Debtor, a Massachusetts resident, fled to North ...

Where a divorced mother has appealed from a Probate & Family Court judgmenton her consolidated complaints for contempt and modification, the judgment must be vacated to the extent that it excluded stock options from the child support provision of the ...

Where the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families petitioned for custody of an unaccompanied refugee minor, the Probate & Family Court had jurisdiction to hear the petition. “In this case, we determine whether the Massachusetts Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (Massachusetts ...

The Probate & Family Court could rule on the custody of an unaccompanied refugee minor transferred to Massachusetts by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families petitioned for custody ...

Where a Superior Court judge reversed the denial of long-term care benefits under the commonwealth’s Medicaid program, the judgment must be vacated because MassHealth was not allowed to consider a trust reformation in determining countable assets for eligibility purposes. “… ...

A woman is entitled to shared custody of two children she jointly raised during and after a same-sex relationship with their biological mother, a Probate & Family Court judge has ruled in a case of first impression. While the parties ...

Where a plaintiff filed a complaint to establish de facto parentage, the plaintiff and the defendant biological mother of their two children should be granted joint legal custody. “… Throughout the children’s lives, [defendant] Julie [Gallagher] and [plaintiff] Karen [Partanen] ...

Attorneys frequently get calls from clients who say, “I need a will,” when what they really mean is that they need an estate plan. And the clients who make those calls almost always end up with more than just a ...

Where a plaintiff in a legal malpractice suit has died, the complaint should be dismissed without prejudice because his widow did not file a substitution motion within one year of her being appointed personal representative of his estate. “In the ...

Where a Probate & Family Court judge ordered $457,902.09 in trust funds to be awarded as fees to the descendants of the decedent trustees, a remand must be ordered for a more specific and searching analysis of the fee requests. ...